M'Dougal And M'Kenzie, This
Proposition Was Adopted, And Was Promptly Accepted By M'Tavish.
The Merchandise Sold To Him Amounted To Eight Hundred And Fifty-
Eight Dollars, To Be Paid For, In The Following Spring, In
Horses, Or In Any Other Manner Most Acceptable To The Partners At
That Period.
This agreement being concluded, the partners formed their plans
for the year that they would yet have to pass
In the country.
Their objects were, chiefly, present subsistence, and the
purchase of horses for the contemplated journey, though they were
likewise to collect as much peltries as their diminished means
would command. Accordingly, it was arranged that David Stuart
should return to his former post on the Oakinagan, and Mr. Clarke
should make his sojourn among the Flatheads. John Reed, the
sturdy Hibernian, was to undertake the Snake River country,
accompanied by Pierre Dorion and Pierre Delaunay, as hunters, and
Francis Landry, Jean Baptiste Turcotte, Andre la Chapelle, and
Gilles le Clerc, Canadian voyageurs.
Astoria, however, was the post about which they felt the greatest
solicitude, and on which they all more or less depended. The
maintenance of this in safety throughout the coming year, was,
therefore, their grand consideration. Mr. M'Dougal was to
continue in command of it, with a party of forty men. They would
have to depend chiefly upon the neighboring savages for their
subsistence. These, at present, were friendly, but it was to be
feared that, when they should discover the exigencies of the
post, and its real weakness, they might proceed to hostilities;
or, at any rate, might cease to furnish their usual supplies. It
was important, therefore, to render the place as independent as
possible, of the surrounding tribes for its support; and it was
accordingly resolved that M'Kenzie, with four hunters, and eight
common men, should winter in the abundant country of Wollamut,
from whence they might be enabled to furnish a constant supply of
provisions to Astoria.
As there was too great a proportion of clerks for the number of
privates in the service, the engagements of three of them, Ross
Cox, Ross, and M'Lennan, were surrendered to them, and they
immediately enrolled themselves in the service of the Northwest
Company; glad, no doubt, to escape from what they considered a
sinking ship.
Having made all these arrangements, the four partners, on the
first of July, signed a formal manifesto, stating the alarming
state of their affairs, from the non-arrival of the annual ship,
and the absence and apprehended loss of the Beaver, their want of
goods, their despair of receiving any further supply, their
ignorance of the coast, and their disappointment as to the
interior trade, which they pronounced unequal to the expenses
incurred, and incompetent to stand against the powerful
opposition of the Northwest Company. And as by the 16th article
of the company's agreement, they were authorized to abandon this
undertaking, and dissolve the concern, if before the period of
five years it should be found unprofitable, they now formally
announced their intention to do so on the 1st day of June, of the
ensuing year, unless in the interim they should receive the
necessary support and supplies from Mr. Astor, or the
stockholders, with orders to continue.
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